From the Logbook...More Bad News

Earlier last week I had the privilege of taking 4 Germans into the community of Amoltepec. One is a bible translator, another was his young son, and two other were visiting from Germany. The plan was to be in the area of AMO for a few days and I would pick them up Saturday morning.

Yesterday morning I took off into crystal clear skies en route to AMO. On final approach to landing I almost aborted due to the wind but was able to still make it in safely. After shutting down and opening the door, I was once again greeted by hysteria, just like the previous night with the 3 patients. Now that I was back on the ground, all those family members of the 3 patients wanted to leave still, at least 8-10 people, or two flights worth. This wasn't even including the 4 Germans I was there to pick up.

As I looked around at the mob of people, I realized only 3 of the 4 Germans were there. Standing right next to me was the German missionaries son. Luckily he speaks English (as well as German, Spanish, Mixtec, and who knows what else). I asked him where his dad was and he began to tell me that "he would be coming out Monday now because the pastor of the community was murdered last night and he wanted to go to the funeral." This blew me away! I don't even know the pastor. All this killing and fighting is so normal to these people. It really shook me that one of our own was murdered. I don't think it was related to what happened with the three patients from the previous night, and I don't think it was directly related to his faith, but once again I didn't ask questions.

Because of the squirly winds I had on final approach to land, I anticipated takeoff being the same and it basically "closing" the airstrip for the day. I didn't want to tell the mob of people while still on the ground that I didn't think I would come back. Also, due to the fact that they had homes to go to, and the 3 Germans did not, I told everyone that the 3 Germans were leaving with me and 2 more people of their choosing. They sorted 2 more out from amongst themselves and soon we were finally loaded up and ready to takeoff.

Sure enough, the takeoff was a right at my limit for fun and I called the community back on the radio and told them it was too windy to return. I assume most of the people that thought they would leave by airplane soon left over land...arriving in Oaxaca some 12 hours later instead of 27 minutes.

The fact that the pastor of the community was murdered really got me thinking on the flight home. You don't read about martyrs in Mexico very much, although they are VERY common. It makes you dig deep to question yourself whether you would really die for your faith if it came to that. I don't know that anyone can answer that until the moment is right in their face. It also reminded me to pray for those that are persecuted for their faith around the world, at whatever level. We are definetly fighting a war against "this present darkness."